Terre des Hommes demands: No suspension of family reunification
Osnabrück/Berlin, May 27, 2025 - On May 28, the Federal Cabinet on the initiative of the Interior Ministry is to decide on a draft law that exposes family reunification into a subsidiary protection for two years. For those affected, the suspension would mean that they would be separated from their families for many years. Already today, many affected people are waiting for long periods of decisions in the asylum procedure, appointments to apply for family reunification and the concrete implementation. The suspension of family reunification would therefore separate them from their relatives well beyond two years.
On the occasion of the proposed resolution on family reunification at tomorrow's cabinet meeting, Joshua Hofert, spokesman for the board of Terre des Hommes , explains:
»The protection of children within their family is part of the foundation of our society and is legally firmly anchored. But many families are separated from displacement and escape. Children and adolescents sometimes wait for the merging with their parents for years. This also applies to those who are entitled to protection, most of whom will live permanently in Germany. Their integration is made more difficult without their families: if parents or children are unreachable far away, they can learn worse, do an apprenticeship or concentrate on work.
As an organization committed to children's rights, Terre des Hommes appeals to the federal government to abandon the proposed amendment to the law. The ban on family reunification, a supposed symbol of a shift in migration policy, will only lead to an immeasurable prolongation of family separation and the blocking of the integration of refugees living here. Especially in light of the sharp decline in the number of refugees arriving in Germany over the past few months, the planned amendment to the law is all the more incomprehensible."